Bingham Wins Pink Ribbon 2012

Australian Open champion Stuart Bingham got his season off to the best possible start by winning this year's Pink Ribbon charity pro-am tournament at the South West Snooker Academy, beating Peter Lines 4-0 in the final.

Bingham Wins Pink Ribbon 2012

The Pink Ribbon tournament is the largest charity pro-am snooker event (with all proceeds going to breast cancer charities) in the world and since it's first staging at the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester two years ago has become a popular fixture at the start of the season ever since.

This year's champion was Essex's Stuart Bingham who also got last season off to a fantastic start by winning his first ranking event the Australian Open. Since then his performances have been solid if not impressive but he managed to remain in the top 16 ever since.

Bingham didn't drop a frame in his last three matches and made two centuries against Mark Allen in the semi-finals and once again knocked in two tons in the final against Leeds professional Peter Lines to win the tournament and boost his confidence going in to the defence of his Australian Open title next month.

As I did last year I entered the tournament myself coming in to the amateur rounds. I managed to do one better and win my first match this year but in the end my "run" was stopped by former West Wales champion Gavin Lewis 4-1 in the second round. It's always a great experience to play in professional conditions on the Star tables and I highly recommend it to any snooker fan to try it for themselves.

See photos from the event taken by regular snooker photographer Monique Limbos here and see all the results from the event here.